Serving the important purpose of linking the islands that hold the staff accommodation and the hospital itself the connecting bridge is a large iron truss bridge that has walkways for pedestrians and a single lane for traffic; typically supply trucks ferrying items to and from the supply depot to the hospital. Due to its truss design there are large iron beams which make up the load bearing superstructure of the bridge itself. Additionally as a result of its iron composition the bridge is now extremely rusted and the lane has become fractured and filled with weeds over the course of time, adding a more natural look to a man-made structure.

Did she just hear them right? They're willing to let her join up? There was a bit of conflict in her head. On one hand, they were carrying the corpse of someone she knew... Albeit only for a few minutes.

But at the same time, safety in numbers right?

There's more chances of her dying alone, right?

She remembered her breathing practices. This is how she gets by when she feels a bit nervous. She's always been good with handling things, and this shouldn't be any different.

Don't think of it as life or death, just think of it as going to the next objective.

The next objective now has been achieved, find safety in numbers.

The next objective... food and shelter.

"Alright... So, if you guys are cool with it, I'm sticking with. Where to? Any place we can get some food maybe? That'd be good, don't you think?" she said, each word slowly rebuilding her confidence... Though still not enough to stand next to the corpse.

Well, that's one way of turning the conversation around. In the span of a second, Darius went from berating the blurry-faced girl to inviting her to join them. Confusing. Everything had gotten confusing so fast, moving faster than the clouds above her head, the same ones that weren't moving at all. Strange.

Even stranger, the invitation that Darius extended was an invitation that the girl decided to accept. Dramatic self-importance aside, if she was an ally, there'd have to be a name to go to her face. That could wait, though. There were words, coming out of people's mouths, mouths trapped in the static of slippery circumstance, that she had to say things back to.

Dizzy. She felt dizzy.

"There was a pub on the map, wasn't there?" Lili asked, straining her memory, "I don't know if they'd have any left over food, but it's worth a shot."

Lili turned back around to the corpse. Still there. She went to take it by the hand, but stopped midway. There was a new shape, somewhere in the distance. Was it new, or was it just something that she hadn't yet noticed that was there all along? The shape was too far away to be anything other than a smudge on her vision, so as far as she concerned, it wasn't worth paying too much mind to. Her main concern was picking up the sack of stilled meat that had once been a person, slumped before her. Interlacing her fingers with that of the body, Lili turned back around and dragged her over to her other two companions.

"I'm all set," Lili said, ignoring the headache and longings still throbbing through her skull, "and I think I'm fine on the shoe front, but thanks for offering." Su's shoes were not to be touched by someone as slippery as Darius, not yet, not ever. Lili would rather throw them into the sea. Disproportionate? Probably. Appropriate? No. The shoes, however, meant something to Lili, even more so than anything else she had with her. They could take her food, her weapon, her own toy light saber, but never the shoes.

Too important.

Lili was losing both focus and interest in what was going on around her, so she turned her gaze to the sea. Having something far away to look at, far away and moving just a little, eased her headache slightly. At the very least, she felt tranquil, like she had on the morning of the previous day.

Before she carried the weight of one - no, two - dead people with her.

- insert of lucky br8k!!!!!!!!
- insert of O.B. - white kid who is involved in politics and has divorced rich parents and issues with feeling emotions
- self-styled detective
- normie
- lou reed doing a gay voice
- insert of F.G.D. - black kid who wears a pizza hat and plays trumpet
- cute thing
- Darl from As I Lay Dying
- insert of A.B. my dorkass little brother who fancies himself a linguist and gets on my nerves
- good lives make bad stories
- insert of N.T. another floutist because I havent done one of those already
- hillbilly
- someone who doesnt "have a good time making allies" as an advantage
- pine barrens monster from the family that has a ghost butler
- David Foster Wallace
- furry
- myself again
- insert of K.D. a pianist and if you thought bert was smol, hohohohoho

Darius stood up. Oh, well. Then he was not going to tie Lili's shoes together for the lulz. Well, she probably would have not received it well. Perhaps she would have and Darius would have brought good mood in this bizarre situation where they carried a corpse. He'll never know.

Natalie was joining the group, which was cool. One more member. One more person to help. Though, Darius seriously doubted that she would be able to carry Jasmine's corpse. She seemed weak and he did not want vomit on his corpse. Wait, that sounds weird.

So Darius looked at the direction where the bridge would end, not looking back to see a girl standing there. Just forward, to the pub, to the radio tower, to freedom. The Pub was perfect. It was near the Radio Tower, he could dump Jasmine there. He went to the corpse to carry it again.

As she got closer, she recognized their motion, too. One of them - a vaguely familiar greenhaired boy she didn't know - stood up, grabbed something large and amorphous, maybe a burlap sack or flag, and made some noises about leaving. They hadn't noticed her presence yet. It was strange, but perfect: she was within earshot and could simply eavesdrop, but still some distance off, enough that she went unnoticed, whatever noises she had made. That allowed her the luxury of some choice as to when she dropped in more overtly.

And she would exercise that choice. Wherever they went, she'd follow. Until the time was right.

"Off we go," Lili muttered, throwing a passing glance in Natalie's direction. Though she looked her over for any kind of distinguishing feature, something she could make a nickname out of, Lili saw nothing of any real note. She'd have to be Natalie for a little while longer. Of course, it was more likely that Lili would just forget about her long mental tirades on and on about dissociation and more kinds of overthinking than was healthy, but in the present moment Lili was caught deciding to think on it later.

Glad that Darius had respected her answer to her request, however awkward it may have been, Lili followed eagerly, body in tow. She was getting used to the feeling of Jasmine's hand, almost like a stress toy that she could squeeze whenever she started to shake again. Judging from the fact that her need for cigarettes had yet to evaporate, Lili guessed she'd be needing something to take out her frustration on.

As she walked away, her glasses fell out of her pocket and onto the ground.

- insert of lucky br8k!!!!!!!!
- insert of O.B. - white kid who is involved in politics and has divorced rich parents and issues with feeling emotions
- self-styled detective
- normie
- lou reed doing a gay voice
- insert of F.G.D. - black kid who wears a pizza hat and plays trumpet
- cute thing
- Darl from As I Lay Dying
- insert of A.B. my dorkass little brother who fancies himself a linguist and gets on my nerves
- good lives make bad stories
- insert of N.T. another floutist because I havent done one of those already
- hillbilly
- someone who doesnt "have a good time making allies" as an advantage
- pine barrens monster from the family that has a ghost butler
- David Foster Wallace
- furry
- myself again
- insert of K.D. a pianist and if you thought bert was smol, hohohohoho

Finally, a group. Natalie was mostly relieved. She didn't really have any other feelings other than that. Relief. It's been a while since she felt that way as well, so even though they were carrying around a dead body, they seemed willing enough to work together that Natalie would just ignore all that.

The pub seemed like a nice place.

Natalie drifted off into her thoughts so much that it looked like they already took off without her. She hurried and ran towards them, noticing a pair of dropped glasses, Natalie picked them up and stored them in her pocket.